Yes, Don, the agent system is exactly the same over here - so after 3 months (if that is what her contract with the TV company states) she (or any other runner-up contestant) would be totally free to sign up with any agent. She would not have to make any payment. In fact, in the UK there is a law against agents charging an up-front fee to take someone onto their books - they can only deduct percentages of earnings on work they have found for their clients.

Judging from what I have read here about the hold that the TV production company will have on the eventual winner, it seems to me it would actually be better to be a runner-up and be able to make one's own decisions with the career advice of a good, independent agent, rather than being the apparent "winner", whose hands will be very much tied.

- jeanie